Sunday, July 14, 2013

Happy Monday nail lovers! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, though I know they are never long enough! I've been battling with my dry and awful looking cuticles all weekend, and I'm hoping that they will take care of themselves sooner than later!

But, today I wanted to share the Mani I did on Sunday! I debated on if I wanted to do a blog post about it or not, because I did feature the base color in my "Top 10 Polishes for Summer 2013" blog post... But, I decided that it was pretty enough to share!

I ordered China Glaze's Fairy Dust from amazon and to my surprise it arrived earlier than I thought. I resisted temptation of removing my previous manicure for a whole day before I had to find something to layer this beauty over! :-) With that said, I'm sure you'll be seeing it in many nail art tutorials to come! :-)

The finely milled glitter was so hard to capture on camera and I honestly feel as if it made my camera go a little "cross-eyed"... I tried to get some good shots for you, and I hope you can truly see how beautiful this effect is!

~Bahamian Escape: A bright powder blue cream polish. This polish has a wonderful application, 2 even coats and this color is fully opaque. It's a beautiful color on it's own, added in a gradient, and also with a glitter top coat.

~Fairy Dust: A beautiful silver holographic micro glitter. This polish is too sheer to wear alone, 1-2 coats over another polish and it gives a beautiful subtle shining effect to your manicure!

Without Flash

With Flash

With Flash

That's it for today! I'll have more swatches and more Mani's to come in the future! I hope you're Monday isn't too hard on you! Smile and have fun! :-)

Friday, July 12, 2013

Hello Nail lovers! It's been a wonderful Friday for myself! No big plans for the weekend, other than maybe laying around and watching some movies with the hubby! :-) Relaxing weekends are ALWAYS fun! :-)

I decided this morning to do a comparison post between 3 of the neon purples that I have in my collection. These polishes are beautiful and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do and maybe find a new polish for your mani/pedi this summer! :-)

Without Flash - No top coat

With Flash- No top coat

These next pictures are how I typically wear my polishes, even those with a matte finish, I use top coat on all of my polishes to give it a more "polished" look. Many people prefer polishes without a top coat and like the natural appearance of the polish, this is the reason I gave you swatches with and without a top coat. :-)

Without Flash- With top coat

With Flash- With top coat

As you can see, there's no dupes here! These polishes are great enough to own each and every one of them! I love the pastel neon appearance of China Glaze's That's shore bright, the true purple quality of Essie's DJ play that song, and the bright magenta/fushia feel to Sinful Color's Dream on! These polishes are a great addition to your collection and I feel that they will be on trend for summer's to come! :D

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Afternoon Nail lovers! I hope your Thursday is all you hoped it would be! The plus side, only one more day until the weekend! :) It's been one of the longest weeks ever here in the bluegrass! We've had temps in the upper 70's to upper 80's with what feels like 100% humidity. Yesterday was so awful I felt the need to take 3 showers with this sticky ickness! So far, today hasn't been much better!

With all of that being said, one of my "plus-sides" to yesterday was the Mani I thought to throw together! It's glam meets girly! It's the perfect soft pink which on it's own would be a beautifully muted look. I added a bit of sparkle with a nail polish I'm now considering to be a "hidden gem"!

I used 3 coats of L'oreal's Penthouse pink on all of the fingers except the ring finger. On the Ring finger I used a .99 cent polish from my local CVS, It's a Wet n Wild Wild Shine Polish in Sparked.

Can we just take a second to look at the beauty of this glitter! It's a beautiful Rosy glitter mixed with with the same sized Silver glitters in a clear base. It's Opaque in 2-3 coats and just sparkly as all get out!!!!

Penthouse Pink was a little harder to apply. It's a pink/white polish which I love, however it's somewhat streaky and took 3 sheerish coats to become opaque.

Here it is! :D

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With Flash

I tried to capture the beautiful glitter in this polish but it seems to make my camera go a little crazy! It's such a beautiful "Foil" type quality glitter. The L'oreal color is easily duped by other white/pinks such as Essie Fiji, OPI Pink Friday, and I'm sure many others you may already have in your collection!

Without Flash

With Flash

I hope you enjoyed my Thusday mani, I'm sure I'll have more for you soon! Have an awesome Friday and leave a comment below telling me your favorite combo with a glitter accent nail! :-)

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Good Evening Nail lovers! :D I hope you all had a fantastic Tuesday! Today has been a great day for myself! I had some news that I've been waiting on for a few weeks and start a new Job in approx. 2 weeks! :-)

Now that I've given the wonderful news, it's time to show you what else I've been working on today! As you can tell by the title, it's time for my top 10 nail polish picks for Summer 2013!

Some of these polishes are from this years collections, some are limited edition (which you can still find on amazon), and some are cult favorites of the nail community. All photos are taken indoors, the first image is without flash and the second is with flash. All colors have top coat applied. Enjoy! :-)

Essie: Watermelon

A beautiful pink based red, creamy and beautiful formulation. Opaque in 2 coats, perfect alternative to a plain red in the summer! Just Gorg!

Without Flash

With Flash

China Glaze: Pink Voltage (Neon)

Pink voltage is from the Wow Factor collection which is now part of CG's permanent line. I am in LOVE with this color! This pink is just as the name suggests, electrifying! This is a blue based pink with a slight iridescence with a blue sparkly undertone. This polish is perfect for toes or fingers!

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With Flash

OPI: Be a Dahlia won't you

Be a Dahlia won't you is a polish I lusted after for a long time! It comes from the nice Stem's collection and can we just take a moment to take all of this glorious color in?! BEAUTIFUL! It's a sheerish pink with a pink and blue foil throughout! It's one of my favorite pedi colors of all time! Several drugstore brands have tried to recreate this color!

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With Flash

China Glaze: Dance Baby

Dance baby is a pure bubble gum pink color! Every time I look at it for some reason my mind goes to cotton candy, or ice cream from the ice cream truck! The formulation of this polish is a little thick and takes a little bit of working with to get an even finish, however I can deal with the formulation for the pure beauty of this color!

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With Flash

Essie: Mint Candy Apple

A blue based mint that is a great alternative to a stark white polish. I am in love with this polish, there really is not much more to say. Perfect formulation, opaque in 2 even coats. Cult Favorite!

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With Flash

China Glaze: Turned up Turquoise

This color is summer in a bottle to me! It reminds me of looking at water, swimming at the beach, and the beautiful skies (though it's more green than blue). The formulation can tend to be a little streaky, but overall it's a wonderful color and polish! Cult Favorite!

Without Flash

With Flash

China Glaze: Bahamian Escape

Bahamian Escape is a beautiful blue! It's dupe is OPI's what's with the Cattitude. This color has a great formulation, opaque in 2 coats, and is just wonderful for summer!

Without Flash

With Flash

Essie: DJ Play that Song

From Essie's 2013 summer neon collection. This is a neon purple which is almost a crelly formula. It took 3 coats to get rid of VNL, however I'd use 4-5 if I had to, just for this color! This color looks like nothing special when you're indoors, and when you go outside in the sun, BAM! It's a color I've not regretted buying!

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With Flash

China Glaze: Flip Flop Fantasy

This color looks orange indoors, outdoors it's more of a coral neon. This color is like an instant tanner! I once put it on my tanned sister's toes, and it made her look that much darker, instantly! It's beautiful!!!! Cult Favorite!

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With Flash

Essie: Cute as a Button

Cute as a button is part of Essie's permanent line. It's a orange based coral, it's the perfect summer color, and it was my very first Essie nail polish!

I try to answer these questions as much as possible, but the honest
truth is, there’s a lot that goes into caring for your nails when you were born
with such poor nails.

A little history on my nails:

Growing up I was a biter. Not only did I bite my nails down to the
quick which would sometimes cause bleeding, but I also had a nasty, nasty habit
of biting my cuticles (and still do when I’m nervous or stressed)… I never
really paid much attention to my nails but I knew that my thumb nails would
grow extremely long but the rest of my nails would eventually rip right off…

I was always embarrassed of my hands. If someone wanted me to sign
my name in front of them I would do my best to conceal my fingers as they were
all dry, cracked, chewed, and looked completely awful.

As I grew older I started watching YouTube videos obsessively and
began to think, “I wish I could take such great care of my hands and nails as
this person, or that person!”…

So, I started to take notice… “When did I bite?”, “Why was I biting?”,
“What could I do to prevent me from biting?”…

That’s when it clicked, and I started painting my nails!

My Obsession:

I started trying different companies, Sally Hansen, LA Colors, NYC,
Wet n’ Wild… I noticed that my polish would peel off in sheets only a day later…
I did research to find out “What are the best polishes? Base coats? Top coats?
What else do I not know?”…

I was having a super hard time liking the whole “mani” concept… My
nails would look great for a few days, still super bendy… They started ripping
off… My polish was a chipping mess, my hands looked the same but only with
awful chipping polish! I tried several different strengtheners, which I thought
I was seeing results, only to realize a few weeks later when my nails would
grow out a quarter of an inch, they would start peeling…

After battling these issues for several long and painful months… I
started eventually seeing results. I was recommended “ORLY: Bonder base coat”, “Seche
Vite top coat”, and noticed that even though my nails were bending they weren’t
chipping with 2nd day wear…

I developed a nail care routine, started watching for signs of
peeling, cracking, dryness and kept everything in “check”…

Don’t get me wrong, it took A LOT more than a few months to see the
results that I have now… It’s a LONG and sometimes quite painful waiting
process…

I look forward to sharing swatches, tips, routines, and products
with you all!